On a warm summer afternoon on August 28, 2003, the residents of Erie, Pennsylvania witnessed the beginning of a crime so strange and shocking that it would make headlines around the world. That day, a 46-year-old pizza delivery man named Brian Douglas Wells entered a local PNC Bank branch with a most unusual and terrifying accessory—a heavy, locked metal collar bomb around his neck. The bizarre heist and its tragic end would kick off an investigation into one of the most convoluted and perplexing criminal conspiracies in FBI history. This is the story of the collar bomb plot, the untimely demise of a man who may or may not have been a willing participant, and the astonishing cast of characters behind one of America‘s most notorious heists.
The Fateful Delivery
At 1:30 p.m. on the day of the robbery, Wells, a long-time pizza delivery driver for local Mama Mia‘s Pizzeria, received an order to deliver two pizzas to an address a few miles from the shop. It would be the last delivery he would ever make. According to Wells‘ later account to police, when he arrived at the location, he was confronted by a group of black men who held him at gunpoint and forced him to put on a heavy bomb collar locked around his neck.
The men gave Wells a complex set of instructions. He was to rob the PNC Bank on Peach Street of $250,000 and follow a sort of macabre scavenger hunt to various locations, where he would find additional notes directing him what to do next. He had 55 minutes to complete the tasks or the bomb would go off. If he completed the tasks in time and didn‘t involve police, Wells would get the key code to free himself from the deadly collar. Wells claimed the men threatened him and his family with harm if he didn‘t comply.
So began one of the most unusual bank robberies in American history. At approximately 2:30 p.m., Wells entered the bank with a cane-like shotgun fashioned with the barrel cut off. He calmly approached a teller window and slid over a note demanding $250,000 in cash. When the teller explained they didn‘t have that much on hand, Wells replied that he would accept $100,000. Ultimately, Wells left with a bag containing just $8,702 in cash.
The Collar Bomb
What made the scene so alarming was the large, boxy device locked around Wells‘ neck, visible as a bulge under his white t-shirt. According to witnesses, Wells indicated that the contraption was a bomb that would detonate unless he completed his task and acquired the money. Throughout the robbery, which lasted less than 15 minutes, Wells appeared calm and composed, seemingly unperturbed for a man with an explosive device around his neck.
After exiting the bank with the cash, Wells drove off in his car. But he didn‘t make it far before state police troopers caught up to him in a nearby parking lot. Wells was quickly apprehended and handcuffed, all the while insisting that the bomb was going to blow up at any moment. Bomb squad personnel were called to the scene to examine the device while Wells sat handcuffed on the ground.
The collar bomb itself was an elaborate and sinister contraption, as described in FBI evidence reports and crime scene photos later released. It consisted of two main parts: a triple-banded metal collar locked around Wells‘ neck and an oblong box dangling from the front of the collar on his chest. Inside the box were two kitchen timers and at least two pipe bombs. It was later determined that the bomb could be detonated either by the timers reaching zero or by remote if Wells got too far out of range.
The Scavenger Hunt
After being taken into custody, Wells began relating a most peculiar story to investigators. He claimed that he had been abducted that afternoon while out on a pizza delivery run and coerced to wear the bomb and rob the bank by the group of men. Wells insisted he was merely a hostage following the demands of his captors under threat of death.
FBI investigators found a set of detailed, handwritten notes in Wells‘ car that seemed to support his bizarre tale. The notes laid out a kind of scavenger hunt with specific instructions for Wells to follow:
- At 2:00, be at the McDonald‘s restroom at Peach & 26th.
- Get out of car, go in, and get the note from under the sink.
- Go to the nearby wooded area and follow subsequent instructions.
The notes went on to direct Wells to further locations where he would find more instructions, ultimately ending up at the bank to commit the robbery. Throughout, the notes emphasized that Wells was being watched and that police were not to be involved, or else the "bomb will go off."
The Detonation
But Wells would never complete the twisted scavenger hunt laid out in the notes. As heavily armed police and FBI agents surrounded him in the parking lot, something triggered the bomb to begin a rapid beeping countdown. Wells became visibly panicked, knowing his time was nearly up.
The explosion, when it came at 3:18 p.m., some 40 minutes after Wells robbed the bank, was catastrophic. The device detonated with tremendous force, blasting a fist-sized hole in Wells‘ chest and severing his head. Shrapnel and bomb components were scattered dozens of feet in every direction. The grim scene stunned hardened investigators. But the mystery was only beginning.
The Investigation
The question of whether Wells was a hostage or a willing participant in the plot consumed the ensuing investigation, which would go on for years and involve hundreds of hours of forensic analysis, interviews, and grand jury testimony. Physical evidence seemed to point to Wells‘ possible complicity. Investigators noted that he made no attempt to tell bank tellers that he was a hostage, nor to alert citizens outside the bank. The cane gun he carried was determined to be inoperable. And for someone with a live bomb locked to his neck, Wells remained astonishingly calm throughout the ordeal.
However, the notes and the elaborate bomb that killed him also strongly indicated that Wells was being manipulated by others behind the scenes. To unravel the conspiracy, investigators followed a complex trail of evidence that led back to an unlikely cast of characters from Wells‘ orbit.
The Co-Conspirators
The investigation revealed at least three key figures behind the collar bomb plot. The first was a retired high school shop teacher named William Rothstein. In the days following the heist, Rothstein called police with a tip about the crime and pointed them to the body of a man, James Roden, that he had hidden in his garage freezer. Rothstein claimed that an ex-girlfriend, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, had murdered Roden in a dispute over money.
This led investigators to Diehl-Armstrong, a brilliant but mentally unstable local woman with a history of violent outbursts. FBI agents determined that Diehl-Armstrong had conceived of the bank robbery plot as a way to get money to pay someone to kill her father, whom she believed was wasting her inheritance.
The third central figure was Kenneth Barnes, a former television repairman and Diehl-Armstrong‘s fishing buddy. Barnes was to be the triggerman in the murder-for-hire plot targeting Diehl-Armstrong‘s father. He was also the one to recruit Wells to join the scheme and help carry out the bank heist.
Over time, the FBI pieced together a picture of the conspiracy. The convoluted plot called for sending Wells into the bank with the collar bomb and cane gun to demand $250,000. After obtaining the money, Wells was to drive to a remote location where Barnes would be waiting. There, Barnes would kill Wells and make off with the cash to later pay for the hit on Diehl-Armstrong‘s father. The collar bomb would eliminate Wells as a witness.
Behavioral Analysis
But big questions still remained, chief among them Wells‘ true role and motive. FBI behavioral analysts weighed in with some revealing insights. They noted that even for someone under duress, Wells displayed an unusual level of calm and composure throughout the robbery. Agents believed that Wells‘ relaxed demeanor indicated that he erroneously assumed the bomb was inert and that he had more time to complete the scavenger hunt tasks before any danger of it detonating.
There was also evidence that Wells was not just a simple pizza man picked at random but a key inside player in the plot. Rothstein told investigators that Wells had been in on the plan for weeks and was to get a cut of the money. Wells‘ aunt would later testify that shortly before the heist, Wells had told family members that he had come into some money and planned to move to an undisclosed location, suggesting foreknowledge of the crime.
A History of Heists
The collar bomb case was immediately acknowledged as one of the strangest and most convoluted heists in FBI history. But the notion of using a live hostage strapped with explosives to commit robbery was not without precedent. In 1991, a young man named Erich Glotzbach was arrested for attempting to rob a bank in Germany while claiming to have a bomb vest strapped to his body. After his arrest, Glotzbach confessed that he had been coerced by unknown men who kidnapped him and his family.
Other notorious robbery schemes over the years have involved similar elaborate planning and misdirection, though few as dark as the collar bomb plot. The infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist immortalized in the film "Goodfellas" included Pinkerton guards as inside men. In 1997, a group posed as security guards driving an armored truck to steal $17.3 million in cash from a North Carolina bank vault. The 1972 United California Bank burglary saw thieves tunnel under a bank from a neighboring office space. But for sheer diabolical strangeness, the collar bomb plot was in a league of its own.
Lessons Learned
The Pizza Bomber case, as it came to be known, captured lurid headlines for months and lived on in the public imagination as a particularly bizarre and tragic slice of true crime history. It was recognized as one of the most challenging and perplexing cases in the FBI‘s crime lab, requiring hundreds of hours to reconstruct the bomb fragments and unravel the forensic trail.
For investigators, it was a stark example of the difficulties of cracking a complex criminal conspiracy with multiple actors and conflicting potential motives. Physical evidence told one story, while statements from unreliable conspirators told competing versions. Separating truth from lies proved a steep challenge, as did definitively proving the specific roles and foreknowledge of each player.
The case also highlighted the phenomenon of criminals using coercion and misdirection to manipulate others to carry out their schemes. This raised thorny questions about the nature of criminal culpability and vulnerability. To what degree can someone be considered a collaborator if they are acting under threat of violence or death? Philosophers and legal scholars continue to debate these issues.
Justice Served
Ultimately, justice was served, though it would take years to play out in the courts. Rothstein, who first tipped off police to the conspiracy, died of cancer in 2004 before he could be charged. In 2007, Barnes pleaded guilty for his role and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Because of her documented mental illness, Diehl-Armstrong had numerous false starts in the legal system before finally being convicted in 2010 and sentenced to life plus 30 years.
Sadly, Brian Wells did not live to see his co-conspirators brought to account. To this day, his level of willingness as a participant remains a subject of debate. Many close to Wells still insist that he was a gentle, unassuming man who must have been manipulated and intimidated into a scheme he wanted no part of. The image of the his grinning, bespectacled face in his pizza delivery uniform remains an enigma and a cultural touchstone in Erie.
But beyond the dark comedy and morbid fascination, Wells‘ tale endures as a tragically surreal lesson in the depths of human depravity and the mysteries of the criminal mind. The collar bomb plot reflects the incredible complexity of crime and the challenges that law enforcement faces in unraveling the knots. It shows the distorted ingenuity and callousness of those who would use and sacrifice others for greed. And it reveals the blurred lines between conspirator and patsy, villain and victim, that can make the search for the truth so vexing.
No matter the doubts that may always cloud the details, one truth is undeniable: Brian Wells, guilty or innocent, paid the ultimate price in a plot as twisted and cruel as they come. His story is a grim reminder of the havoc wrought by unchecked avarice and the destruction left in its wake. For that reason, among many, it remains one of the most infamous and unnerving heists in memory.
